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so i finally have an excuse to buy an external firewire hard drive (my school highly recommends that everyone get one). i know that i should get upwards of 120-160gb/7200rpm, but are there any other specs that i should be looking out for? also, brand recommendations would help. thanks

those specs should be all you need to worry about.. as long as its not 5400rpm :P

id recomend looking on http://www.pricewatch.com for drive pricing. Prices there tend to be compeditave with most other vendors, but it does require that you be an informed consumer. Sounds like you already know the specs of what you want, so that shouldnt be a problem for you

For a HD, firewire. You don't need external power with firewire... the cable can supply enough juice for the drive to spin. I know this isn't the case with USB 1 and would assume the same for USB 2 (though I am not 100% certain).

The downside of firewire is that not as many machines support it. Almost all newer machines coming out seem to have both USB and firewire, but older ones tend to have just USB. Of course, the older USB is almost always USB 1, not 2... so again, I don't know how much this really matters.

LaCie makes a really nice pocket drive that is firewire external. The thing is encased in rubber and can take quite a bit of abuse (though I wouldn't recommend banging it around on purpose). They are a bit more expensive than some vendors, but I have no other complaints.